Interviewing Q&A and Videos

I have a Codesignal Assessment to do for Dropbox.

The way I plan on prepping is to go through as many of Dropbox's questions on Leetcode as possible (there are only 25 for all time) and to look over Glassdoor. This is the standard approach and I think it works well here.

My small concern is that since this is a Codesignal Assessment, it's going to be more real-life-like and less Leetcode-y. I don't believe there's any way I can tweak my study, so I still think the standard approach is the optimal approach.

Can people confirm and offer their thoughts?

Thanks!

Hey,

I have 10 years work experience, and I have previously worked at a FAANG that had no levels (big clue here!). So regardless of the scope of work, we were Senior. That kinda played at a disadvantage to me when I found my self looking for a job due to a layoff and visa issues.

I believe I am working at staff capacity, leading 5 folks, driving initiative. But I feel like I am unable to "show" Impact. We have metrics at each level. I have addressed the same with my manager, went over the metrics and identified gaps and took action.

I got lukewarm response, at best from other staff engineers and management. No idea if at all I will be considered for promo, and I get no response besides stating, it is a lagging promo.

Right now, I have no visa issues, so I can hop around other companies, I want to move back to a FAANG+ company because of higher pay.

Question is :

How do I ascertain my promotion?

and which of the following is a good bet:

1. Move to staff at Intuit -> Move to (Meta / Google/ Netflix) as L6
2. Move to (Meta / Google/ Netflix) as L5 -> work towards L6
3. Move to staff at Intuit -> Move to (Meta / Google/ Netflix) as L5 (as they down-level, at this point might as well move now)
4. Move directly to (Meta / Google/ Netflix) as L6 ( Highly optimistic, almost delusional )

Hi all, I'm currently job searching after being laid off (junior engineer with 2.5 years of experience) and I know after browsing around here that side projects are heavily encouraged (especially Android apps) to boost up your portfolio and chances of getting an interview.

What are your opinions on doing certifications? I am making my way through an AWS Solutions Architect course while doing side projects - is it a complete waste of time or is it worth balancing along side project work?

Thank you!

Hi all. Got laid off from Amazon in April and still looking for a job (I know :/). I don't get any interviews with lower tier companies but I get interviews at top companies. Do you think that lower tier companies avoid me because I worked at Amazon and they know that I would leave when I get an offer from a top company?

I've done about 25 ML interviews in the last 3 months. Here's my tips

1. HM interviews are super common. KNOW YOUR WORK IN DEPTH. This is the single biggest tip I can give
   1. Be able to talk for atleast 5-10 minutes about the ML models you choose. You cant just give a high level description
   2. Understand the tradeoffs with the ML model you choose
   3. I think depth is just everything. You need to understand deeply the frameworks you use, the models you choose, the evaluation methods, deployment strategy. How it works under the hood
2. DSA is a must. It's hard to cram DSA, but you get really really far with just a bit everyday. About 30% of interviews have a DSA round onsite. Another 30% might have DSA screening (hackerrank/codesignal). I'm not saying grind leetcode 6 hrs a day but even 1-2 problems consistently everyday adds up a lot! and you dont want to be caught unprepared if u get a DSA interview, you cant push back interviews for a month right now
3. Takehomes/timed take homes are common. Make sure you clearly document and your code is easily reproducible and no steps are missing. e.g. if you did some data preprocessing but its not documented/shown thats bad. The conversion rate on takehomes is pretty high for me so do well on them and treat them seriously. In this interview cycle I've gotten first round interviews for all 6 takehomes i submitted
4. Interviews are 80% luck and 20% skills in this market. Sometimes you just cant help it they might want a golang developer and even if youre a 200IQ java developer they dont care. Transferrable skills are not the same in this market. Sometimes theres just not a fit and dont beat yourself up. You can do everything right and still fail interviews
5. Lower Pay/Lower presitge != Easier Interview. They're just different interviews looking for different things. Don't think that just because an interview is for a less prestigious company it will be easier. I've passed first rounds for roles that pay 3x more and 2 levels higher than ones ive failed.
6. Make sure to go through the JD and note the skills theyre looking for and spend 30 mins being able to insert talking points to highlight those skills

Any other tips anyone would like to add?

Meta recruiters request references of people you have worked with before who are current employees of Meta before submitting feedback file to review committee.

My question is what & how much impact does providing these references have on your application, candidacy and the ultimate outcome of the interview process.

Does it hurt your chances to not be able to provide these one or more of these references?

Currently, I am only going through Neetcode's roadmap. I have solved 40+ problems.

My process is:

1. Understand problem
2. Try to solve the problem
3. Try for 10 mins
4. If not, go see the solution video
5. Understand the solution and code up the solution
6. Take notes in an excel sheet for revising later

I only read up theory related to the video in case its something I do not know about from before. Only for max 30 mins, so that I do not waste a lot of time reading up. My primary aim is to learn by solving problems.

I am able to solve some problems but I feel I still do not have the intuition for solving new problems.

My questions:

1. Should I be reading up on more theory before I start doing more of the roadmap? Maybe go through Neetcode's courses.
2. Does it simply take solving more problems to build up the intuition?
3. Should I try harder on my own before checking the solution video?
4. How did you build the intuition to solving new problems?

My friends who are there seem to be struggling quite a bit with the current culture, alongside dwindling mental health.

I love the potential of enacting a change for good.

But would it just fall on deaf ears with no one wanting to step outside the bounds and not change the status quo?